Adventures of the Nerima Wrecking Crew
by Compucles
Summary: What would "Ranma One Half" be like if it were turned into an episodic superhero cartoon? Join Ranma and his friends as they battle the forces of Nerima chaos while avoiding the Law themselves. This is not actually an AU but a manga continuation with an unusual genre alteration. Standard manga pairings applied.


**Adventures of the Nerima Wrecking Crew**

**Disclaimer: **"Ranma ½" is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, not me. It was also made into an animé, but now I'm turning it into a Western style Saturday morning cartoon.

**Formatting Notes:** Double quotes indicate spoken dialogue, while single quotes indicate thoughts. Italics indicate flashbacks. I'm not very familiar with Japanese honorifics, so I won't be using them except in the cases of Ranma's and Ukyo's childhood nicknames for each other and of course the name of Ukyo's restaurant. I will also be using English translations for most terms except for the technique names that are left untranslated in the animé. As for the Amazon names, the naming theme can't be a coincidence (as with the Musk naming theme). I feel that the Chinese Amazons purposely name their children after the English words for hygiene products and then write the names as the closest Chinese equivalent. Therefore, they will have the same names even when speaking to each other in Chinese in the context of the story. As for gender pronouns when referring to Ranma, the narration will refer to Ranma by his current form, while the other characters (except the Kuno siblings) will think of him as male and speak of him as male, unless they have some reason to hide his curse at a point when he's female.

**Continuity Notes:** This takes place starting 2 years after the end of the manga. I had previously thought that the manga had taken place over less than a year, but rereading it recently I've realized that it goes on for nearly two years despite the lack of changing ages during the Mushrooms of Time Arc late in the manga. This is especially apparent when you realize that there are two manga arcs that take place on New Year's Eve. Therefore, in this story, Ranma and Akane are both nearly 20 years old and have been out of high school for a little over a year.

* * *

**Episode 1: Origins**

The remnants of a yakuza branch were nervously waiting in their warehouse of "merchandise." Just a few weeks ago, they had been making a nice living off of the black market, but then _they_ challenged them.

At first they had thought it was a joke for such an upstart group no one had heard of to send that challenge letter. It didn't take long for that perception to change. Now they were lucky whenever they managed to make a "business deal" without the group's interference. If they weren't lucky, they could count on losing their supplies and at least one of their men left unconscious for the police to pick up. The police weren't always able to hold them, but when they could, a couple of times some good police work had managed to connect him with another one of their "employees," who was then easily picked up. They had especially taken a big hit in manpower when in desperation for money they had tried to shake down that okonomiyaki place for "protection."

Tonight, their opponents were making their big move. Earlier that day, a note had somehow been left on the warehouse door (with no witnesses and both video cameras damaged beyond repair) that they were going to send a message by directly attacking this main supply base at midnight, signed by their boss, Hermes (along with a cute drawing of a pair of winged sandals). The head of the branch was there in person and had called in all of his remaining men, armed with all kinds of weapons including all the guns they had, which wasn't many due to the difficulty of obtaining them in Japan. He knew that they had been sent the warning to force them all in one place, but if he lost everything in this warehouse, he was finished anyway.

A minute before midnight, the second-in-command approached the head. "Don't worry, boss. We've got the whole warehouse in sight and every entrance covered by at least one firearm. There's no way they're getting very far without taking heavy damage."

"That assumes we'll be using any of the existing entrances," said a mysterious voice. From behind the boss and his second, two figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere. One was a man dressed in a black Chinese style shirt and pants and a matching hood with a slit for his dangerous looking blue eyes. The other figure was a woman wearing the same outfit but in white. She wasted no time knocking the second yakuza unconscious then disarming and disabling the boss.

Meanwhile, from the ceiling dropped a woman with long dark hair wearing a hooded ninja outfit. She proceeded to dash around and cause considerable confusion with her hit-and-run ninja tactics while she began taking men down left and right.

On one side of the warehouse, the wall cracked and then exploded inward, causing pieces of it to fly around and hurt a few of the yazuka unfortunate enough to be in range. From the hole emerged a man with dark hair dressed all in red including a mask on his lower face and a spotted bandana. In one hand he held an umbrella, also red. From behind him stepped a thin man with a long brown ponytail dressed in a baggy blue shirt, pants, and hood. He was carrying a large Western style double-bladed sword with a bandolier across his chest, ironically holding several Japanese shuriken or throwing stars. He also had a pouch at his hip containing a few unknown items.

On the other side, another hole was smashed in by a woman holding a pair of weapons resembling giant maracas. She had long loose black hair and was wearing a decorative oriental mask. She was dressed to show off her impressive figure with tight Chinese pants and some kind of armored top that accentuated her chest. From behind her stepped a man with long dark hair dressed in a black Chinese robe. On his face was a mask resembling some kind of mecha with included lenses over his eyes. From his robes shot several chains and various other kinds of weapons.

Hermes watched as his group successfully took down all the yakuza in a matter of minutes, only interfering to shoot some kind of glowing white orb at a man who had been aiming a gun at the man in red while shouting, "Watch your back, Ares!"

When the take down was complete, Hermes grabbed the boss and held him up by his collar. "Here's your final message. Tell all the scum ya meet in prison. This town now belongs to the 'Nerima Wrecking Crew'" He threw the man lightly (for him) into the nearest wall, sending him into dreamland.

Hermes shouted out to the rest of his Crew. "That was an excellent job for our first real test. Hecate, is the place free of cameras and bugs?"

"It is now, Master Hermes." answered the kunoichi.

"Please don't call me that. Ya make me sound like a Bond villain. Alright, destroy all the weapons you find and gather up everything else you can carry to take back ta base. Chione will arrange for whatever can be returned an' to sell what can't. Hurry up, but make sure ya don't leave any fingerprints. The police should be here soon."

"I still wish she would've picked a codename people have heard of like Athena," complained the woman in white.

"Well, ya know how she is, Hera," replied Hermes. "She considers herself an ice queen, so she picked the Goddess of Snow."

"Aiyaa!" complained the provocatively dressed woman. "Artemis get too too many split ends with all this hair dye."

"That was your choice," responded Hera. "Indigo colored hair is just too recognizable, so either put up with the hair dye or cut it short like mine. Also remember that you can't say anything to the bad guys, or your accent and bad grammar might give you away."

"That's right, sugar," agreed the one with the sword. "I'd rather be fighting with my spatulas, but then I'd get arrested the next time an off-duty cop visits my restaurant."

Artemis growled. "Artemis rather have split ends than look like tomboy."

Hermes chuckled only for Hera to punch him lightly in the shoulder. "Shut up, you jerk. I happen to know you like tomboys, or you never would've married one. Heck, you even transform into one."

Before long, seven figures, each carrying at least one crate, leapt away across the Nerima rooftops.

* * *

Soun Tendo waited anxiously for the latest Nerima Town Council meeting to begin. Normally, he found these meetings rather boring, but tonight they would be discussing the dangerous new criminal syndicate that had popped up nearly overnight over the last few weeks. The other night, they had even been responsible for breaking up and robbing an entire yakuza branch.

The council head rose to began the meeting. After the usual introductory remarks and business, he got to the main topic. "Gentleman and ladies, we have a serious new threat to this town, and something needs to be done about it. Somehow, this new group has come out of nowhere to begin wrecking havok in the criminal underworld. They started small by attacking petty thugs and burglars, but now they've taken down an entire yakuza branch. Although they've only gone after other criminals so far, they could become a major threat to everyone if we let them continue. We need to stop them now while we still can."

"Keep in mind that what I'm about to reveal is sensitive information. If any of you breathe a word of it outside these chambers, you can be charged for obstruction of justice." He took a bunch of flier sized sheets of paper from his briefcase as well as a few large pages of notes. "They call themselves the Nerima Wrecking Crew. Although there are only eight active members of the group plus three known support personnel, they are all extremely dangerous. They all go by codenames from Greek Mythology, and the police have been unable to identify any of them."

"First of all, there's the leader, Hermes, named after the Greek Messenger God." He put down one of the fliers to show a picture of a man dressed all in black, his face concealed by a hood, labeled with his codename. "The police are baffled as to why he picked Hermes instead of Zeus other than his penchant for calling his attacks 'messages.' He's never armed with any kind of visible weapon, but he's a high level martial artist with some kind of weapon or ability to shoot out some kind of glowing, round projectile that acts like a blunt object."

"Next is Aphrodite, named after the Goddess of Love." He showed the next flier, showing a person dressed just like Hermes but with the figure of a woman. "She appears to be the second-in-command or maybe a co-leader. She and Hermes takes turns leading their 'missions' while the other one stays behind. Her fighting abilities are very similar, as well, including the projectile attack. From her codename and status, the police suspect she has some kind of romantic relationship with Hermes."

"Then, there's Hera, named after the Goddess of Women and Marriage." He showed a picture of a woman dressed the same as the others but in white. "She's thought to be the second-in-command during their missions to either Hermes or Aphrodite or occasionally leading a secondary group. She also has similar fighting skills, although her projectile attack is somewhat smaller and therefore probably a little less powerful. Her codename suggests she may also be involved with one of the other male members."

Soun was really starting to get nervous now. This group had at least three martial artists capable of using ki attacks. Forget the police; even Ranma and his friends might have trouble going up against a group like that.

"Fourth is Ares, named after the God of War." He placed a picture of a man in red with a face mask and bandana. "The codename is obvious here. This guy is a tank. Nothing short of possibly a bullet is known to take this guy down,while his strength is close to inhuman. He wields an umbrella of all things that's extremely heavy and somehow tosses the bandanas he wears like they're bladed shuriken. On top of that, he somehow has the ability to shatter rock and other building materials with a touch."

Soun gulped as he recognized that description. Only Ryoga could do all of that. Thinking back to the other profiles, that meant Hermes and Aphrodite were almost certainly Ranma's two different forms, and if that was the case, odds were high that Hera was Akane. What was Ranma thinking dragging his baby girl into a life of crime?! Could he turn in his own daughter and her husband over to the police? If he didn't and it was one day discovered what he knew, he himself could be put away as an accessory. He had to find out all he could first before making that decision, both here and by confronting Ranma directly at home.

"Then there's Artemis, named after the Goddess of the Hunt." As he placed the photo of the attractive woman on the table, there were a few catcalls from some of the men, one of them commenting that she made more sense as Aphrodite. "She's another exceptional martial artist who wields a pair of large blunt weapons called bonbori with enough power to smash through walls. You don't want to be the one hunted by her when she swings those things in your direction."

"After that, we have Hephaestus, named after the God of the Forge." A picture of the man with the mecha mask was now lying on the table. "No illusions about the codename here. He doesn't do much hand-to-hand fighting, but his robes contain a large amount of hidden weapons that are expertly wielded, mostly hooked chains and knives but also some that are pretty bizarre."

"Next is Hecate, named after a minor Goddess of Magic and Trickery." This photo showed a woman dressed as a traditional kunoichi or female ninja. "You ever see a movie with ninjas and think there's no way ninjas can do that in real life? Forget about doing that now. This femme fatale lives up to her codename with incredible feats of agility, stealth, illusions, thrown weaponry, and other special techniques."

"Finally, we have Dionysus, named after the God of Wine and Celebrations." The final photo showed a man with a sword and bandolier of shuriken. "The idea behind this codename is unknown at this time. He's pretty much the most normal fighter of the group and will probably be the easiest to capture. As you can see, he mostly relies on his sword and shuriken, although he does carry a few other surprises including some kind of weird white smoke bomb, and he's very skilled in the use of all his weapons."

"As I said before, they also have at least three support members who have been heard referenced by codename, but we know little about them. They go by Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home, Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, and Chione, a strange choice as a minor Goddess of Snow. The only thing we know is Chione handles the finances, although what that has to do with snow is anyone's guess. Judging from the codenames, it's thought that Hestia may be some kind of domestic servant and Demeter a cook or chef."

Soun frowned. He really hoped Akane was his only daughter involved in this mess, but Chione and Hestia sounded like they very well could be Nabiki and Kasumi.

The head of the council continued, "That's most of the relevant information the police have at this time. Before we discuss our options in the matter, are there any questions or comments?" Soun immediately raised his hand. "Ah, Mr. Tendo, I thought we might hear from you. Has your background in martial arts provided any insight as to what we're facing?"

Soun hesitated but realized he had to give them something that would be pretty obvious that he should recognize. "About those glowing orbs that the first three of capable of firing, there are no actual weapons involved. I recognize them as a martial arts technique called a ki blast, although they probably have more specific names for them. Only highly advanced masters of the Art of capable of such a technique. I myself was never able to learn it." Whispered murmurs were heard among the other council members at this revelation.

Soun added, "I also have a few questions about how dangerous this group really is. They're definitely thieves and vigilantes, but I wonder if it's really worth the enormous effort it would take to stop them. You already said yourself that they only attack and steal from other criminals. Several of their described abilities could easily be used as lethal attacks, but have they actually killed anybody or even dealt severe injuries?"

The head councilman looked through his notes. "I must say, Mr. Tendo, you really have an understanding of these kinds of people. The police have noticed just such a thing from their attacks, which proves just how skilled they really are to be able to control their attacks in such a way. However, the thievery proves that they are no mere vigilantes. They seem intent on taking control of the criminal underworld in Nerima and perhaps all of Tokyo. Who knows what they may do if they actually succeed?"

Soun was mostly tuned out as other questions were asked and possible solutions were discussed, although he made sure to pay enough attention to make a few minor comments and get this gist of where they were leaning, as they were unable to make any final decisions during this meeting. He was worried about what he would discover when he arrived home.

* * *

When Soun arrived home, Kasumi came to greet him. "Welcome home, father. How did the council meeting go?"

"Oh, it was very informative," answered Soun. "Could you find Ranma? I need to speak to him."

"Certainly, father," agreed Kasumi. "I believe he and Akane are up in their room, although it's quite possible that it could be a couple of minutes before Ranma is decent enough to come down." Soun filed the latter part of that response under "too much information" and waited for his son-in-law to appear.

Eventually Ranma came down and asked, "Yo, whatcha want, Mr. Tendo?"

"We need to talk privately, son. Come with me to the dojo," Soun answered.

Once inside, Soun tried to look stern, although he was badly out of practice. "I've just come from a very interesting Town Council meeting. We were discussing this new criminal syndicate called the 'Nerima Wrecking Crew.' I don't suppose you know anything about them."

Ranma gulped and avoided looking in Soun's eyes. "Wh-why would I know anything ab-b-bout a bunch of cr-criminals?" he stammered.

"Well, it's just that they're all a bunch of high level martial artists, so you might be interested. One of them uses a heavy umbrella, another a bunch of hidden weapons, there's a girl with a pair of bonbori, and they apparently have two leaders, a man and a woman who dress the same but never appear together. Do these people sound like anybody you know?"

Ranma was starting to sweat now. "Well, maybe, but it's gotta be a coincidence, right?"

Soun entered his demon-head form. "I may be oblivious to some things in this house, but I'm not stupid. You're the one behind the 'Nerima Wrecking Crew,' and I want to know why!" He dropped the demon-head and continued. "First of all, you've clearly recruited Ryoga, Shampoo, Mousse, and Konatsu. Am I correct in my assumptions that Hera is Akane and Dionysus is Ukyo?"

Ranma sighed. "That's correct. Nabiki is handling the money as Chione. Kasumi figured out what we were doin' and had to be brought in as Hestia. Ryoga couldn't lie to his wife, so Akari is Demeter. Dr. Tofu has helped us the few times we've had injuries, but he doesn't know nothin' about it. I didn't force any of 'em into it. They all agreed to help. Are you gonna tell the police?"

Soun sighed. "That depends on what else you have to say. I wish you weren't doing this at all, but at least you're only targeting criminals and haven't used excessive force. I really don't want to send my entire family to jail, but I need to know why you're doing this and what you're doing with the stolen goods before I can make up my mind."

Ranma twiddled his fingers nervously. "Well, the stealin' ain't really whatcha think it is. We wouldn't be doin' it all if it weren't for this idea we got from this American comic book called 'The Green Hornet.' The idea is that if the bad guys think we're also bad guys, they won't attempt any no-win moral dilemmas, an' it makes it easier ta bluff our way out of jams. When we get some loot, we first destroy any weapons. We take what's left back to Ucchan's, where we've built a secret basement as our base, an' Nabiki sorts it out an' uses some of her connections to anonymously return what we can to its proper owners. We keep the cash and sell the rest, but we only use the money to support our activities as the NWC: buildin' and maintaining the base, special equipment, weapons, costumes, our waterproof soap supply, GPS device for Ryoga, stuff like that. We keep our money as cash in the base so the police can't track it."

"As to why I'm doin' this, it goes back to Gaia, that is, my mother. She's my inspiration for this, although she doesn't know it."

* * *

_**14 months ago:**_

_Ranma smiled as Akane walked down the isle, escorted by her father, in the same wedding dress she had worn during their first wedding attempt ten months earlier. At the time, he had had doubts about whether he and Akane really wanted to get married, but there were no doubts for either of them now._

_There was also a much lesser chance of things going wrong. Ryoga had long since gotten over Akane and moved on to Akari. Ukyo had eventually accepted his decision. Cologne had gone back to China once it was made clear that Shampoo had no chances left, which forced Shampoo to accept it as well. Shampoo herself was no longer able to return home, so she took over as the new owner of the Cat Café, while Mousse of course refused to leave her. The wedding had been scheduled during a Kuno family vacation, and Nabiki had ensured that nobody informed any of them about the upcoming wedding._

_Finally, the ceremony was complete, and Ranma kissed his new bride. Just then, Pantyhose Taro burst through the wall in his cursed form looking for Happosai, who was in attendance on the condition that he behaved himself appropriately. The two of them began to fight, as the guests began to scream and run for the exit._

_Ranma, Ryoga, and a few others tried to break up the fight but to no avail. Finally, Nodoka had had enough. She stepped between them and drew her sword, proclaiming that she would not stand to see her son's wedding ruined again. Unfortunately, Happosai had just thrown one of his Happo Fire Bursts at Taro, which exploded just as it reached Nodoka. She was blown into the dojo wall, where she fell to the ground and remained still._

"_Moooom!" screamed Ranma as he ran to her side, soon to be joined by Genma, who had been cowering behind a table previous to this point. Ranma was relieved that she was still breathing, but she was badly injured. Nabiki immediately ran to the house to call for an ambulance_

_He saw red as he watched the two fighters responsible for his mother's condition continue to fight among themselves. He had to stop them quickly, but there was no way he could form the Soul of Ice necessary for the Hiryu Shoten Ha at this point, and none of his other usual techniques would work well enough. He realized that he did have one attack that he could use right now that would work, although he had never used its full power like this before. He stepped towards them and used the attack: "SHI SHI HOKODAN!" A huge pillar of ki shot upwards and fell back down upon the combatants._

_Ranma was of course unaffected due to the emptiness usually felt after launching such an attack. Pantyhose Taro managed to dart to the side and only took a partial hit. He then escaped flying through the new hole in the dojo roof. Happosai was not so lucky, as he took the full brunt of the blast. As he tried to get up, he was brought down for good by a "Happo 50 Yen Satsu" courtesy of Miss Hinako, who had just come back to help after leading several of her students outside to safety._

_The police had arrived along with the paramedics and taken Happosai into custody for public endangerment and numerous outstanding warrants related to his usual perverted activities. It was then discovered that Cologne had long ago told the police all about what Happosai was capable of and arranged for the building of a special cell and several forms of ki dampening equipment if Happosai were to ever be successfully arrested._

_At the hospital, the Saotomes and Tendos were informed that surgery had been successful, but Nodoka was paralyzed from the waist down and had fallen into a coma from the blow to her head, although they thought the chances were good of her eventually waking up._

_Those chances grew slimmer and slimmer as month by month passed by with no change. Ranma visited as often as he could and felt that the support of his new wife was the only thing holding him together. His anger continued to grow at the chaos that engulfed his life, as it had finally crossed the line of what he could accept._

_Finally, after nine months his mother finally awoke from her coma, to the joy of the entire Saotome-Tendo clan. Of course, the first thing she wanted to know was to ask Akane if Ranma was manly in bed, to be answered with a blushing nod. She was also told that her condition, as tragic as it was, had served as a catalyst to get Dr. Tofu over his insecurities in order to comfort Kasumi. They had recently gotten engaged, although the wedding wouldn't be for quite a while. Meanwhile, between the marriage and Nodoka's condition, Ranma and Akane had decided against attending college for the time being and started working on plans to reopen the dojo. Now that she was awake, they could begin working on executing those plans with some hired help from Nabiki. Nabiki herself had transferred to a college close enough to live at home and be with her family during this difficult time._

_After a couple of months of physical therapy for the half of her body that she could still move, Nodoka was allowed to return home in a wheelchair. She and Genma now shared the downstairs guestroom that had been previously occupied by Happosai due to the obvious problem involved with a wheelchair and a staircase. This allowed Ranma and Akane to take the larger upstairs guestroom for themselves, making Akane's old room the new guestroom._

_Meanwhile, Ranma had begun making mental plans to actively fight the chaos of Nerima, rather than simply reacting to it. Even though things had finally settled down with most of his old rivals, strange things still happened every once in a while, and he was never going to let this happen to anyone he cared about ever again. He quickly gained Akane's support and then gathered together the rest of his allies, each of whom were also sick of things going wrong and sorry about what had happened to Ranma's mother. Some took more convincing than others, but they eventually all agreed on their mission._

_Over the next few months, the team made their plans, trained together in teamwork, and started excavating their base. Thankfully, the more exotic weapon users hadn't fought in public for so long that they had slipped from the memory of most people, while they could count on the police not to release such detailed descriptions to average citizens who could remember them like several more recent Furinkan High alumni. Finally, the "Nerima Wrecking Crew" was born._

* * *

Soun was weeping as Ranma finished his explanation, although he actually glossed over most of the information in the above flashback sequence, as Soun already knew about it unlike our viewers out there.

Once he calmed down, he said, "I still wish you hadn't done this, as we'll all be in huge trouble if you ever get caught, but I promise I'll keep your secret. In fact, just keeping quiet is already illegal, so I'll offer my help as well. You should find it useful to have a mole on the Town Council."

"Thanks, Mr. Tendo," said Ranma as he hugged his father-in-law. He then looked at him and smirked. "You know you'll need a codename, right? We already picked one out for you just in case you ever did join us. You'll be 'Iris,' the Messenger Goddess." At seeing Soun's eyebrows twitch, Ranma added, "I know it's a blow to your manhood to be named after a goddess, but this way the police will be expecting our informant to be a woman. You mighta noticed we're doin' the same thing with Ukyo and Konatsu since they're already so used ta crossdressing, while I'm usin' my curse ta confuse them even more."

"What have I gotten myself into?" asked Soun in exasperation.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Alright, I promise no starting any more multi-chapter stories until I actually finish one, but I had to try out this idea for an episodic storyline. This would be the pilot episode, and the great part about it is that it automatically gets picked up for broadcast, while I'm in complete control of how often it gets "renewed." This way, there's no real set ending to this story until I eventually start running out of ideas or get really bored with it, allowing me to then send it off with a big series finale (possibly with flashbacks to previous episodes).

As I mentioned, I drew inspiration from "The Green Hornet" for the premise with some "Batman" thrown in for the motivation. "One Piece" gave me the idea for criminals who only attack and steal from other criminals.

I've already explained or hinted at the reasons I picked several of the codenames. Let's see if you can figure out the rest of them.

Yes, Ranma has been training Akane, which is why she now knows Moko Takabisha and the Umisenken. She's also learned Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, but she's still not ready for Hiryu Shoten Ha.

Yes, the police have incomplete info on the techniques known by some of the NWC, either due to them not yet needing to use them or the thugs not having a clear view of the technique.

No, not everyone always goes out together, especially since they're not always all available. Sometimes, they'll patrol in two groups with Hera (Akane) in charge of the other one. Of course, the warehouse attack was their biggest strike yet, plus it had been planned in advance, so all hands were on deck.

No, the dojo hasn't reopened just yet. It will probably be a large part of a future episode.


End file.
